El Pollo Regio

Okay, so I’m completely gringo. I like TexMex as much as any Texas girl. This place always smells so great as I drive by. Well, that’s as good as it gets. First of all, if you don’t take your half Hispanic husband to translate, you’re SOL. The place was funky smelling and hot. I mean, it was about 85 degrees inside. The first two things I ordered were not available that day. The food we did get tasted funny to me and it was all extremely greasy. My daughter ordered basic chicken tenders and french fries and she wouldn’t even eat those because she said they tasted funny. I will not be back in there and I would not recommend it.

This place was a tragic disappointment in so many ways.
El Pollo Regio — Regal Chicken for those of you who don’t speak spanish. First thing — they had no chicken. Uh, what? You heard me — the chicken place had no chicken. Ever been to KFC and been told, «Sorry we have no chicken.» I was a bit taken back by that.
Moving along… okay, we can deal with no chicken at a chicken restaurant. We ended up having the taco de carne asada (grilled beef taco) and tacos pastor (grilled pork taco).
The taco de carne asada is supposed to be grilled meat with guacamole, onion and cilantro on a corn tortilla. What we got was grilled meat (which, by itself, tasted okay) guacamole that was mostly a large chunk of avocado, onion, cilantro and a soggy fried tortilla. They had fried the tortilla before making the taco and it turned the whole thing into a soggy, greasy, inedible mess.
The tacos al pastor was grilled pork (virtually no seasoning, but a peculiar red color), lots of onion, and enough cilantro to make my plate look like someone had dumped their lawn clippings on it. The cilantro flavor overpowered everything. The cilantro was so strong, the only way I knew there was meat in my taco was the chewiness.
I’m done with the food review, but I have a couple of things to say about the rest of the establishment. I think the temperature in there was close to 85 or 90 degrees. If the kitchen was open to the dining area that might have explained things, but the kitchen was closed off. The girl that was taking our order didn’t speak english, and luckily I spoke enough spanish to get the job done. There was food all over the floor, dirty tables, and a unique aroma that I can’t find the words to describe. Maybe old trash, grilled meat and body odor?
I’ve seen this place for a while now, and the smells of grilled meat when you drive by are great. Keep on driving… Tio Dan’s is just down the street. Go there.

Did I just eat half a chicken for lunch?
As soon as I saw my ½ Chicken, entire onion, entire lime, rice, beans, 5 tortillas and 2 sauces I thought:
«This is gonna rip my stomach apart… I hope I can receive a wireless signal in the bathroom because I’ll be in there the rest of the day»
Luckily El Regio went down just fine… and it was good. The chicken was a little bare … I really had to pick at it to get some meat off. The rice was just «ok» and the beans… well, the beans were scary, I didn’t touch them.
I was satisfied with my lunch but I wasn’t «blown away»…especially reading all the reviews on El Regio on Unilocal.
A highlight of the meal was watching the Latin American Video Countdown (In high definition by the way). You want to know what happened to Ricky Martin?
He’s currently number 8 on the Latin America video countdown.